


Sunset

by wendywhite13



Series: Imperial Physician [2]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games), Dishonored 2 - Fandom
Genre: Alexi's dead and so is deirdre im so sorry, F/F, Fluff, Imperial Physician, Karnaca, Low Chaos (Dishonored), Low Chaos Emily Kaldwin, Picnics, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 16:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11165562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendywhite13/pseuds/wendywhite13
Summary: While waiting for Sokolov to recover, Emily takes Hypatia on a trip out to the ocean to see if there really is something between them. Some fluff between two nerds trying to find happiness. Part two of "Imperial Physician", intended to be read after "Monsters" and before "A Matter of Duty" but can also be read on its own.





	1. Plans

Emily had brought Sokolov back two days ago, bleeding and bruised. She thanked the stars that Dr. Hypatia had been there waiting, ready to see to his wounds. But even with her care, the old man lay on the couch in the Dreadful Wale, barely moving and speaking only in grunts. Emily could hardly keep still. She knew he was hurt, that he needed time to heal. But she also knew that he was the only one who could identify the remaining members of Delilah’s conspiracy and point the way towards the secret of her immortality. In Dunwall, Delilah dismantled everything Emily and her mother had ever built, her father waited, trapped in stone, and Emily just sat in her cot in the Dreadful Wale. It was maddening.  
“For the last time, your Majesty, stop badgering him,” snarled Megan. Though the captain seemed to be in a perennial bad mood, she rarely got angry. But Sokolov meant a lot to her. She stopped, took a breath to steady herself, and said in a calmer voice, “You can’t push him. He’s...he’s really bad, Emily, they hurt him really bad. Hypatia’s got him stabilized, but he needs time. Please.”  
At the sound of Megan’s voice breaking, Emily was taken aback. She felt a rush of shame. Megan and Sokolov had both suffered to stop Delilah’s coup, to help her, and she was treating them both with disdain. “Megan...I...I’m sorry. I’m just stressed. I didn’t mean it.”  
Megan sighed. “I know. We both are. But we can’t be at each other’s throats like this...look, why don’t you get off the ship for a while. Go for a swim or something, get some fresh air. He’s out of immediate danger, he doesn’t need the three of us fussing around him. I’ll go tell Hypatia to get some rest, too. It’s almost sundown, you two could have dinner together.”  
That was an odd comment. Emily wondered, not for the first time, what Megan thought of her. Love between women was not openly spoken of in the Empire, and it was highly disapproved of by the Abbey of the Everyman. In the past, Emily had engaged in a long-term relationship with Alexi Mayhew, her best friend since childhood. But they had both carefully kept it secret, award of the danger it put them in. After Alexi’s death, Emily wondered if she’d ever love again. If she could find another woman who would love her back.  
She couldn’t deny how she felt about Hypatia. Despite her age, the doctor was beautiful, but it was more than that. Hypatia was one of the few genuinely good people Emily had ever met. She was selfless and dedicated and so passionate. Everything Emily wished she had been. Emily had spent many hours with Hypatia since rescuing her from Addermire. Comforting her, at first. Even though Hypatia had not wanted to be a part of Delilah’s coup, she was torn up with guilt over the actions she had been forced into. Emily had comforted her, reassured her, and eventually gotten her to smile again. That smile had a powerful effect on Emily.  
She wondered how much Megan knew about that. Megan was too perceptive by half, and seemed to know a lot more about Emily’s life than she was letting on. Sometimes, Emily had felt eyes watching her while she talked to Hypatia, and turned to see the captain lurking in the hallway, looking at her with a mysterious expression on her face. Emily wasn’t sure how obvious she was being. More importantly, she couldn’t tell if the doctor really understood how she felt towards her. But Megan’s comment seemed...suggestive. Did she think there was something going on between them? Was there?  
Emily wanted an answer. And, remembering that it was almost sundown, she got an idea of how she might do that.  
“Megan, is it okay if I take the skiff?”


	2. Ghosts

Megan watched the skiff pull away, Emily giving her an overly cheerful wave that she did not return. She had been at loathe to lend it to them. No, it was more than that. This whole business annoyed her. It was frivolous, and they couldn’t afford frivolity. Emily’s little escapade could jeopardize the mission, could get both her and the doctor killed. Where would that leave Megan and Sokolov? She should never have allowed it. But…  
She’d seen what was going on between Emily that woman. She wasn’t blind, after all. The two of them spent all hours together, and she had walked in on them several times with the two of them in each other’s arms, Emily’s head bowed down as if to protect the smaller woman. It was an unpleasantly familiar scene. It made strange feelings well up in her, the half-buried remnants of ancient ghosts.  
“Oh, Billie,” the voice seemed to be carried in on the wind, but Megan knew it was only in her head. “You’re the only thing good in this world. You’ve always saved me. I love you.” For a second, Megan could almost feel those small, skinny arms around her. The girl’s lips pressed to her cheek.  
“I love you too, Deirdre,” Megan whispered back. But no one heard.


	3. Trust

“Are...are you sure this is a good idea?” Hypatia was sitting low in the back of the skiff, eyes nervously watching the Karnacan coastline. “We are...um...wanted. Not in a good way, of course.”  
“Don’t worry,” said Emily, trying to hide the fact that she was having difficulty steering the skiff. “I saw this place when I was taking down Jin-when I was rescuing Sokolov. I don’t think anyone knows about. I don’t think anyone can even get there.”  
Hypatia looked down at her skinny arms. “Um, Emily, I know you’re very good at climbing, but I’m really not very athletic.  
Emily turned around and winked at her. “Do you trust me?”  
Oh my. Hypatia looked down and muttered an agreement. She was still trying to figure out what...this...was. The Empress had burst into Sokolov’s room a half hour ago, carrying a basket full of food, and cheerfully announced that she was going on a picnic, and she wanted Hypatia to accompany her. They had been spending a lot of time together, so in a way, it made sense. When Hypatia had woken that first night, full of dark dreams of fear and blood, Emily had been there for her, soft words of comfort and strong arms surrounding her. She had pulled Hypatia back from the edge, given her back her smile. When Emily was with her, she felt...different. Safer, calmer. More...more what, exactly? It was confusing. Hypatia wished she knew what Emily really thought of her. Hypatia wished she knew what she really thought of Emily.  
Emily pulled the skiff along a seemingly deserted stretch of rocky coast. Far above her, Hypatia could see what she thought might be the Aventa district, perched on high, rocky cliffs. Surely they weren’t going there?  
“Jindosh told me his mansion had the finest view in all Karnaca,” Emily was saying from the front of the skiff. “And it was really nice, you know. You could see everything, the whole bay, and the little houses and the trees. But I saw a nicer place. Just over on a cliff, this little outcropping. There were flowers, and grass and it looked really nice, you know? I think it will make a great picnic spot. Here we are.”  
She pointed directly upwards, or so it seemed to Hypatia. It was hard to tell if there was something there or not, attached to the near vertical face of the cliff, but either way, Hypatia could see no way up that wouldn’t result in certain death.   
Her fear must have shown plain on her face, because Emily once more said, “Do you trust me?”  
The younger woman’s voice was light and airy, but there seemed to be something deeper there too. It was a question with many meanings, or so Hypatia was tempted to believe. Her voice came out lower than she’d meant it to when she gasped out, “With my life!”  
Emily gave her a dazzling smile, and set the picnic basket in Hypatia’s arms. She leaned in close, her lips inches from Hypatia’s ear, and whispered, “Then close your eyes.”


	4. Changes

Hypatia could live a hundred years and still not be able to understand what had happened. Emily had picked her up, bridal-style, she realized, and Hypatia had closed her eyes and gripped the picnic basket with white knuckles. There had been a couple of seconds of jarring, terrifyingly fast movement coupled with a strange sense of weightlessness. When Hypatia opened her eyes again, the skiff they had been standing on was almost a mile below them, under a rocky outcropping jutting out from the cliff.  
She’d almost screamed before she realized they were, in fact, on land. It was as pretty a little place as Emily had said, green grass surrounded by a circle of stones and blue hydrangeas. But she gasped when she looked beyond it. The view really was spectacular. Beyond the rocks, the bay spread out in a glittering crescent, stained pink and gold by the setting sun. The mountains were a deep purple, sillhouetted against a broad sky.  
Emily set her down and stepped beside her, smiling at her wondering face. “Told you it was pretty.”  
“How-how did we get up here?” Hypatia looked down again at the skiff, a tiny dot in the currant-red sea.  
Emily raised a finger to her lips and smiled coyly. “You know what they say about magicians and secrets,” she winked at Hypatia again. Hypatia hoped the pink light was enough to disguise her sudden blush. She looked away. What was she blushing for? Emily was a lovely girl, no doubt about that, young and athletic, with an intense smile and passion and confidence and raven-black hair and-  
That line of thinking was going absolutely nowhere. She was relieved when Emily said, “But enough about that! You must be starving, I know I am.” Taking the basket from Hypatia’s hands, she opened it and pulled out a vial of glowing blue Addermire Solution. Emily downed it in one gulp. She sure seemed to drink a lot of that. It was very odd. She didn’t seem ill.  
Emily didn’t seem to realize that anything strange had happened. Sitting down on a grassy spot, she began to lift more items out of the basket. Pear sodas, cans of jellied eel, even a pretty little tart wrapped in cheesecloth. Hypatia wondered where she’d gotten it. Emily didn’t seem like much of a baker.  
Seeing her still standing on the edge, Emily smiled and patted the grass in front of her. This was very small little spot, Hypatia realized, and there wasn’t a lot of sitting room not occupied by rocks or flowers. They’d be sitting very close together. Had Emily planned that. She sat down, folded knees only inches away from Emily’s long legs. It wasn’t...bad. She reached a hand out to grab a pear soda, but Emily gently grabbed her hand instead.  
Hypatia stared for a moment at the place where there hands touched. Emily’s nut brown skin, her long fingers with glittering silver signet ring laying on top of Hypatia’s pale wrist, still stained in places with the iodine she’d used on Sokolov’s wounds. The sight made her heart pound in her chest. What did it mean?  
She looked up at Emily and realized the empress was staring at their hands too. The sun caught in her raven hair and glinted on the gold details of her coat, turning them to fire. Void, she was beautiful.  
Emily opened her mouth like she was about to say something, then closed it again. Smiling, she handed Hypatia a cold bottle of Padilla soda. “You, um, you like these right? They’re my favorite.”  
“I-I love them,” she stammered out. “Um, everything looks wonderful.” She looked up at Emily again. “Really wonderful. I...thank you for this.” There were more words she wanted to say, but they seemed to catch in her throat. There was a warm feeling, in her chest and in the hand that had touched Emily’s, and the blood seemed to be rushing very loudly in her ears. Instead of speaking, she took a sip of the soda. The cold liquid on her throat calmed her.  
Neither her nor Emily said anything for a long time, and Hypatia wondered if they were both thinking the same things. They sat watching the bay, munching on the food Emily had brought, as the sun sank over the edge of the world and the stars began to dot the purple sky. Every so often, they’d look over at each other and smile softly. Eventually, they packed up the basket and returned to the skiff, Emily once again instructing Hypatia to close her eyes as they went through a series of quick and dizzying drops. They sat back in the skiff, meandering back towards the Wale, nervously joking about how mad Megan would be at them. The chat was light, but once again, there was something else beneath it. Something had changed between them. As Emily helped her climb the side of the Wale, Hypatia wondered if anything would ever be the same again.


End file.
